Embalmer

Perform the duties of funeral directors, including coordinating funeral activities.

Join lips, using needles and thread or wire.

Apply cosmetics to impart lifelike appearance to the deceased.

Pack body orifices with cotton saturated with embalming fluid to prevent escape of gases or waste matter.

Arrange for transporting the deceased to another state for interment.

Supervise funeral attendants and other funeral home staff.

Attach trocar to pump-tube, start pump, and repeat probing to force embalming fluid into organs.

Close incisions, using needles and sutures.

Reshape or reconstruct disfigured or maimed bodies when necessary, using dermasurgery techniques and materials such as clay, cotton, plaster of Paris, and wax.

Incise stomach and abdominal walls and probe internal organs, using trocar, to withdraw blood and waste matter from organs.

Wash and dry bodies, using germicidal soap and towels or hot air dryers.

Insert convex celluloid or cotton between eyeballs and eyelids to prevent slipping and sinking of eyelids.

Make incisions in arms or thighs and drain blood from circulatory system and replace it with embalming fluid, using pump.

Direct casket and floral display placement and arrange guest seating.

Arrange funeral home equipment and perform general maintenance.

Press diaphragm to evacuate air from lungs.

Perform special procedures necessary for remains that are to be transported to other states or overseas, or where death was caused by infectious disease.

Assist with placing caskets in hearses and organize cemetery processions.

Maintain records, such as itemized lists of clothing or valuables delivered with body and names of persons embalmed.

Serve as pallbearers, attend visiting rooms, and provide other assistance to the bereaved.